New Year's Dawn

New Year’s Day was dawning, and I’d been behind the wheel all night, driving my wife, Sophie, and her best friend, Jessica, back to our hometown for the holiday. We were almost there when Jessica suddenly hit play on a video. “They say the only way to see a man’s true colors is to push him to his breaking point,” a chipper voice from her phone announced. “If he can stay calm while you create chaos, congratulations, you’ve married a one-in-a-million man.” The words sounded absurd to me. I glanced over as she and Sophie started chatting about it, not paying it much mind. But then, Jessica’s next words sent a chill down my spine. “Hey, Sophie,” she whispered, a mischievous glint in her eye. “Alex is always so patient… you ever wonder if it’s all an act?” “You should grab the wheel,” she giggled. “You know, just to see what he does.”

1. The moment the words left Jessica’s mouth, my relaxed posture vanished. I sat bolt upright, the exhaustion from the all-night drive evaporating in a flash of adrenaline. Seeing my reaction, Jessica clapped a hand over her mouth, stifling a laugh. “Look at him, he’s terrified! Haha, I was just kidding with Sophie, Alex. Don’t worry.” “Just focus on the road,” she added. “Don’t get distracted.” I shot a look in the rearview mirror. They seemed to be laughing it off, so I let out a slow breath, my heart rate gradually returning to normal. We’d just gotten off the highway, trading smooth asphalt for a narrow, winding mountain pass that was the last stretch home. The road was old, neglected, and pockmarked with potholes. To our right, a sheer cliff dropped hundreds of feet into a foggy abyss. If Sophie actually grabbed the wheel here, the three of us would be taking a one-way trip to the bottom. “Maybe don’t make jokes like that again,” I said, my voice colder than I intended. The fatigue and the intense focus required for the road had worn my patience thin. Jessica looked embarrassed and mumbled, “I was just trying to liven things up a bit.” Sophie, however, seemed to think I was out of line. She slapped my shoulder, not playfully. “What’s your problem, Alex? Jess was just trying to break the silence.” “And you,” she continued, her voice rising, “you’ve been quiet as a tomb this whole ride. Anyone would think you’d lost a fortune.” I was too tired to argue. I figured if I just stayed quiet, she’d run out of steam. “Are you listening to me?” But she wasn’t done. She leaned forward and jabbed a finger into the side of my head. “Alex, did you even hear a word I said?” That push frayed my last nerve. “I’m driving, Sophie.” My curt reply was like a lit match to a fuse. She exploded. “What kind of tone is that! It’s bad enough you ignore me, but now you’re snapping at me? You think you’re so special just because you’re driving?” Her shrill voice felt like a spike being driven into my foggy brain. The exhaustion was now mixed with a deep, suffocating frustration. I didn’t even want to open my mouth. Thinking about Jessica in the back seat, I tried to de-escalate. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. Can we please just not fight? We’re almost home.” Seeing the tension flare, Jessica tried to play peacemaker. “It’s okay, Sophie. It was my fault, I shouldn’t have said anything. Let’s just calm down. It’s a holiday, we should be happy.” But Sophie wasn’t having it. She brushed Jessica’s hand away, her voice climbing several octaves. “No! He needs to explain himself, right now.” “Alex, what do you mean, I’m fighting? I’ve been with you for six years! I had your children, I took care of your parents, and for what? For this?” “When you were broke and couldn’t afford a down payment, I was the one who swallowed my pride and begged my dad for the money! You didn’t seem to mind my ‘fighting’ then, did you?” She was dredging up the past again. I just wanted to shut down. When my business was taking off, I’d suggested we wait to have kids. She insisted, saying her family was getting impatient and that she’d handle everything while I worked. I agreed. Then she complained that raising kids was too exhausting. Her parents always had an excuse not to help. So, my parents dropped everything, left their life in our hometown, and moved to the city to help her. Last year, she kicked them out and sent them back home because my mom said one wrong thing. And the money from her dad? I told her I could get a loan. But she insisted on asking him, and over the years, I’d funneled so much money back to her family I’d lost count. Renovating their house, buying her parents a new car, paying for her brother’s wedding. I never threw any of that in her face. But every little thing she did for me was a debt I was never allowed to forget. My silence only fueled her rage. She took it as an admission of guilt. “Don’t you dare play dead with me! We’re not finished until you answer me.” “Say something!” she shrieked. We were approaching a sharp curve in the road. Before I could even start the turn, Sophie lunged forward, her hands closing over the steering wheel. She yanked it hard to the right. My foot slammed on the brake instinctively. The world erupted in a gut-wrenching screech of tires against gravel. With a sickening crunch of metal, the car jolted to a halt, half-suspended over the abyss.

2. My hands were clamped on the wheel, my entire body rigid. My heart was in my throat. Through the windshield, the mist rising from the bottom of the cliff felt close enough to touch. If I hadn’t wrestled the wheel back in that split second, the car and all three of us would be tumbling into that endless void. I threw the car into reverse and floored it, tires spinning until we were safely back on the narrow road. Only then did my mind catch up to what had just happened. I turned to look at Sophie’s face, and the dam of my control finally broke. “Are you insane?” I roared. “Do you have any idea how close we just were? Did you want to kill us all?” The near-death experience hadn’t shocked her into sanity. If anything, it made her angrier. “Don’t you blame me for your terrible driving,” she sneered. “Typical. Men are all the same. The second something goes wrong, you look for someone else to blame.” I stared at her, a mixture of fury and despair churning in my gut. Just then, the driver of the other car was wrenching my door open and dragging me out onto the road. “What the hell is wrong with you? You almost killed my entire family!” He was coming from the opposite direction. Sophie’s stunt had sent us veering directly into his path. In a strange twist of fate, hitting his car might have been the only thing that stopped us from going over the edge. “Man, I’m so sorry,” I stammered, my head still spinning. “I’ve been driving all night, I’m exhausted.” “Just tell me what the damage is. I’ll pay for everything.” It was my fault, plain and simple. “Pay for it?” he spat. “My wife is pregnant! If anything happens to her, I’ll hold you responsible for the rest of your life.” A cold dread washed over me. I glanced at his car and saw a woman cradling a large belly in the passenger seat. “Honey, stop shouting,” she moaned. “My… my stomach really hurts.” I rushed over to her side, my panic rising. Then I saw it, a dark stain spreading on the fabric of her seat. Blood. “Okay, don’t worry,” I said, fumbling for my phone. “I’m calling an ambulance right now. I’ll cover all her medical bills, all the aftercare, whatever you need. Name a price, I’ll pay it. Just please, let’s get her help.” Seeing my genuine panic and willingness to take responsibility seemed to cool his temper slightly. But of course, that was Sophie’s cue to storm out of the car. She shoved me aside, glanced dismissively at the pregnant woman, and then turned on the husband. “What’s the big deal? It’s just a baby,” she said with a shrug. “A little bump isn’t going to kill her. Don’t you dare try to shake us down for money.” “I saw the whole thing,” she declared, pointing a finger at him. “You deliberately swerved into us.” Her friend Jessica chimed in from beside her. “That’s right. You can’t pin this on us.” The man’s barely contained rage exploded. “I swerved into you? Are you out of your mind? You lying…” He drew back a fist, but his wife cried out again. “Mark, please! It hurts so much.” He shot me a look of pure hatred, then settled for landing a solid punch on my jaw before rushing back to his wife’s side. “It’s okay, baby, it’s okay. I’m taking you to the hospital right now.” Knowing I deserved it, I quickly pressed my business card into his hand. “Dude, just get her to the hospital. Call me for anything you need. Anything at all.” He smacked my hand away, his eyes burning into mine. “I don’t need your damn card. I know who you are, Alex. You and your family just wait. If anything happens to my wife, I swear to God, I’ll make your whole family pay.” With that, he peeled out, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. Watching him disappear, a heavy sense of dread settled in my stomach. His final words echoed in my ears. But Sophie was completely oblivious, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “Look at you, throwing money around like it’s nothing. I ask for a new purse and you act like I’m bankrupting you, but you’ll hand over cash to some random tramp without blinking an eye.” Her words pushed me over the edge. “What is wrong with you? That’s a person’s life we’re talking about!” “What’s it got to do with you?” she yelled back, unflinching. “Stop sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. You should be grateful I’m not making them pay for our car.” This wasn’t the first time she’d been this unreasonable, but the other times had been about small things, things I could let go of. This was different. I was broken. She knew this was her fault. She knew what she had done, yet she stood there without a shred of remorse. In that moment, the woman I married felt like a complete stranger. I didn’t want to argue anymore. I just pulled out my phone to call the police.

3. The second she saw me dialing 911, she lunged. “What are you doing, Alex? Are you calling the cops on me? On your own wife? How could you be so cruel?” She snatched the phone from my hand and ended the call. “I gave you the best years of my life, and now you’re going to turn me in for some stranger? Are you even human?” Jessica joined in, trying to reason with me. “She’s right, Alex. Sophie was just looking out for you. What if they are trying to scam you? You shouldn’t be so quick to throw away money.” I almost laughed at their ignorance. It wasn’t funny. “I’m reporting the accident to the traffic police so we can file an insurance claim,” I explained, trying to keep my voice even. “And it creates a record. If he decides to sue us later, we’ll have an official report. Otherwise, it’s just his word against ours, and things could get much worse.” I thought I’d made it perfectly clear. But Sophie just glared at me. “You seem awfully concerned about helping him. I think you’ve got something else on your mind.” I gave up. Another word with her and I’d lose my mind completely. When the traffic police arrived, they took our statements and issued an accident report. After they left, I called my parents back home and asked about the guy, Mark. He said he knew me, but his face drew a complete blank. I’d memorized his license plate, and when I read it to my dad, it clicked. “That’s Mark Jensen,” my dad said. “You guys were best friends in elementary school. His family lives right across the street from us. How could you forget?” It had been too long since I’d been back. I’d lost touch with everyone. If we had that connection, maybe this could be resolved more easily. I asked my mom to contact Mark’s parents and give them five thousand dollars for now, just to cover immediate expenses. My parents did as I asked, no questions asked. But in Sophie’s eyes, this act of goodwill was a confession of guilt. “Who are you sending money to?” she demanded, peering at my phone. I ignored her. That only confirmed her suspicions. “You’re cheating on me, aren’t you? Is that your mistress? You’re sending her money?” “Give me your phone. Give it to me!” Her eyes were red and wild, her face a mask of profound betrayal. To any outsider, she looked like the victim. “You’re insane,” I muttered, getting back into the driver’s seat. My insult was all the provocation she needed. She grabbed onto me, refusing to let go, her voice a torrent of accusations. “Get out of the car! Tell me who she is! I have done nothing but be a good wife to you, and this is how you repay me? You’re a monster, Alex!” “Everyone thinks you’re such a wonderful husband, so good to me. But I know the truth. You checked out of this marriage a long time ago, didn’t you?” She was crying and screaming in my ear, and I had reached my limit. Still, I forced myself to explain that I was paying Mark to avoid a bigger conflict. Her response shut me down completely. “That’s my money. How dare you give our money to a stranger without my permission?” I laughed. A hollow, empty sound. Then I fell silent. She really had no idea I was doing this to save her.

4. I didn’t bother explaining further. I just told them to get in the car. Jessica was already in the back seat, but Sophie stood her ground, staring at me with a look of deadly seriousness. “You didn’t answer my question. Why did you take my money and give it to someone else?” My brow furrowed. Her relentless, irrational behavior had pushed me to the absolute edge. “What do you mean, your money? Do I not have the right to spend the salary I earn?” “None of this would have even happened if you hadn’t grabbed the steering wheel!” “So you are blaming me!” she cut in, her voice sharp as glass. “It was your hands on the wheel when you hit him! Don’t you dare try to pin this on me!” I was stunned into silence. A minute ago, she was claiming Mark hit us. Now, she was saying I hit him. “What do you want, Sophie?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. “I want you to apologize. And I want you to get that five thousand dollars back.” “If you don’t,” she added, her eyes glinting, “I’ll call the police and tell them you tried to murder me.” Any desire I had to communicate with her was gone. I held out my phone. “Call them.” Seeing that she was serious, Jessica finally spoke up. “Sophie, come on. Let’s just go home, okay?” “Home? There is no home until he apologizes. If I’m going down, I’m taking everyone with me.” Without another word, she dialed 911. She told the dispatcher I was driving recklessly and had deliberately caused an accident, a clear case of attempted murder. When the police arrived, they found only our car at the scene. “You’re the one who called?” an officer asked Sophie. “Where’s the injured party?” “He’s already been taken to the hospital,” she said, pointing at me. “It was him, officer. He crashed into them.” The officer glanced at me, then back to Sophie. “And not only that,” she added, “he secretly transferred five thousand dollars from my bank account.” The officer’s brow furrowed. “What’s your relationship? And how did he get money from your account?” “He’s my husband,” Sophie said earnestly. The officer sensed something wasn’t right. “Do you have any proof that he caused the crash?” “I do. The dashcam footage is the proof. And he has the transfer record on his phone.” The officer looked at me. I said nothing. He retrieved the dashcam from the car and then snapped a pair of handcuffs on my wrists. “If there’s evidence, you’ll have to come with us.” “You too, ma’am,” he said, turning to Sophie. “We’ll need your statement.” Hearing she had to go to the station, Sophie balked. “Officer, you’ve got him. Why do I need to go? To be honest, I don’t really want you to arrest him. I just wanted him to apologize to me. Then we could have just let this go.” She tilted her chin up, as if she were the one in control. The officer almost laughed. “Ma’am, do you think calling 911 is a game? If he’s responsible for injuring someone, he has to face the consequences.” “Let’s go.” And just like that, they took me away. At the station, they reviewed the dashcam footage. It clearly showed me swerving into Mark’s lane and hitting his car, an action that resulted in his wife showing signs of a potential miscarriage. They put me in a holding cell. During the interrogation, the officer asked if I had anything to add. I shook my head and gave a bitter smile. “She’s right. I’ll admit to everything. Just get it over with.”